I have ran across another Brass model Railroad importer, Pacific Pike,
Once again, a name that I am not that familiar with, at least this time I heard of Pacific Pilke but I am unaware of their reputation. I had heard that they imported a few locomotives made by various manufacturers. Some were in kit form.
What I acquired is a CPR N 2a 2-8-0. I was informed that this model is circa late 1960’s. The model has a small plaque - Pacific -Pike - Japan.
It is an open frame motor, the detail level for a 1960 ish model looks very good to me,
The piping and rivets expecially. It is a heavy little beast, pulls very well.
I replaced the magnets and this engine runs like what you would expect from a new engine (after being taken apart, cleaned and oiled and a couple of hours of running time.)
Toby ? Pacific Pike ? (who’s that?) - - for some guy buying up all the available Canadian Brass, you better get hold of a book “Brass Trains Guide Book”
You are right, I have been busy lately buying some more HO Canadian steam engines.
That is the problem when there are so few Canadian steamers available in plastic.you have no real choice but to go the brass route.
I did buy a few of the TrueLine CN engines when they had their firesale. But that is pretty well it for plastic, so no real choice but brass. I was one of the lucky ones, as my engines have had no problems (knock on wood).
However, buy brass has not been too bad as I will only buy the older brass which is about 1/3 to 1/4 the price of the new brass and that is without sound or DCC.
Upgrading the brass to DCC and Sound is not that hard or that expensive if you do it your self. I have been lucky in that one of the local members of the Model Railroad club is an excellent instructor and is available to anyone who needs help. Without his help it would be so much work and frustration.
As you can not help but notice I bought some steamers that were imported by Pacific Pike and the other steamer which while a PFM import was made by Toby, which I had only heard of lately.
I bought a couple of books on brass engines but they were more than a few years old and obviously not current in their values.
Brass engines actually do seem easier to work on that say the newer Bachmann Spectrums. NWSL is also a great source of parts to update those engines which had very simple gearing, almost like direct drive.
If I was to start over, I would still go with the Canadian and GN steam engines,
Would have stayed away from some of those “pretend” engines which simply had Canadian or GN decals slapped on.
I received a ton of information on Pacific Pike. Apparently there were located in Seattle and were an importer of a number of model railroad items. They imported metal box cars in kit form, kits also included railroad buildings and structures.
They were in business from the early to late 1950’s and formed a business association with Frew and Gordon in Vancouver who were in the 1950’s one of Vancouver’s largest sellers of model railroad equipment as well as fine China and Silverware. I remember seeing my first train in their store in Vancouver an American Flyer S gauge that showed up under the Christmas tree in 1956.
As far as brass trains go, Pacific Pike imported from a number of Japanese manufactures during that time frame. One of the companies was International Trains which was a subsidiary of Tenshodo.
I believer that the CPR engine I have is one of their products imported by Pacific Pike. It is very similar in finish of the early Tenshodo Crown models. They were finished in far more detail than most at the time.
